THE ROCK CITY OF PETRA
Descriptions of the width and height
and the details of this monument of antiq
uity may enable many to reproduce
for themselves some of its striking feat
ures; but neither language, measure
ments, nor pictures can give more than
a bald idea of the temple and its charm
ing surroundings. The secret of its magic
seems to be the culmination of man's
best efforts with the powers and beauties
of nature.
Located at the end of a long and diffi
cult journey, whether one comes from
the valley of the Euphrates, from Sinai,
from Egypt, or from any point of Syria
east or west of the Jordan; set in the
mountains of mystery, at the gateway
of the most original form of entrance
to any city on our planet; carved with
matchless skill, after the conception of
some master mind; gathering the
beauties of the stream, the peerless hues
of the sandstone, the towering cliffs, the
impassable ravine, the brilliant atmos
phere, and the fragment of blue sky
above-it must have been enduring in
its effect upon the human mind. We saw
it in its desolation, a thousand years
after its owners had fled-tempest,
flood, and earthquake having done their
worst, aided by the puny hand of the
pandering Arab, to mar and disfigure
it-and we confess that its impression
ipon our hearts and memory is death
less.
To portray the marvelous coloring of
these masses of sandstone and to give
anything like a correct view of this
unique feature of Petra is something we
attempt with misgivings.
From the
moment we sighted the great castellated
mass in which the city lies hidden until
we took our last glimpse from the high
lands above, we never ceased to wonder
at the indescribable beauties of the pur
ples, the yellows, the crimsons, and the
many-hued combinations. Whether seen
in the gloom of the Sik, or the brilliant
sunshine, that seemed to kindle the
craggy, bristling pinnacles into colored
flames, they continued to inspire our sur
prise.
Travelers have vied with each other
in their attempts to describe these
beauties. After the solid colors of red,
purple, blue, black, white, and yellow,
the never-ending combinations are best
compared with watered silk or the plum
age of certain birds.
We shall be listened to if we say with
all soberness that "the half was never
told" of the effect of this many-hued
landscape; for as we saw it glistening
with the rain drops after the showers, we
saw it before the sunrise, we saw it
under the noonday sun, and we noticed,
as perhaps no one had done before us,
the way in which these ancient sculp
tors fixed the levels of their tombs and
temples and dwellings so as to make
most artistic use of the more beautiful
strata in the mountain walls, and we
marveled again and again, in the never
ending ravines, how these ancient dwell
ers consciously practiced a kind of land
scape gardening, where, instead of beau
tiful effects produced by banks of fading
flowers, all was carved from the many
hued and easily wrought solid stone,
which took on new beauties as it
crumbled away
TIHE GREAT THEATER
Not far from Pharaoh's Treasury is
a great theater (see page 288) cut in
what may be called the Appian Way of
the city. It stands among some of the
finest tombs-a theater in the midst of
sepulchers. The floor of the stage is 120
feet in diameter. Fully 5,000 spectators
could have found comfort in the thirty
three rows of seats. Here also the color
ing of the sandstone is brilliant, and at
certain places in the excavation the tiers
of seats are literally red and purple alter
nately in the native rock. Shut in on
nearly every side, these many-colored
seats filled with throngs of brilliantly
dressed revelers, the rocks around and
above crowded with the less fortunate
denizens of the region, what a spectacle
in this valley it must have been! What
an effect it must have produced upon
the weary traveler toiling in from the
287